Xur is located across from the Speaker

Reminiscent of the human astronauts who first discovered the Traveller on Mars, the Taikonaut’s old-school vibe brings with it a handy exotic perk. If a Launcher lacks tracking, Taikonaut adds it for no charge whatsoever. Dragon’s Breath pairs well with this helm.

However, if you’ve got a G&H baby that needs that little edge in PvE, the Taikonaut does nice things. It also increases the rate of Heavy Ammo drops, which has been known to be inconsistent on Exotics (see: Ruin Wings). You’ll still want boots with +Rocket Launcher ammo, so you can get 2 rockets guaranteed on a pickup, and store enough to justify an Exotic that focuses solely on them.

In PvE, heavy ammo can be the difference in a team-wipe or not, so having more is certainly fantastic. In PvP, tracking rockets paired with Grenades & Horseshoes make it very difficult to miss. Plus, HMGs have a long time to aim down sights, and in game modes like Control, the extra radar can create some crazy killing sprees. The Taikonaut is must-buy for Titans.

“Radar remains visible while zooming with Heavy Weapons” can be useful in PvP too. With MGs and their slow movement/long ADS times often meaning the difference between a kill and a death.

These grant a powerful boon in one extra melee charge, and any melee damage has a chance to instantly refund your Primary magazine. This perk procs frequently (50%+ of the time) in my experience, so it’s a great supplement for Raid weapons with Cocoon, or for Hunters running Ace of Spades – or indeed, any weapon that gets a little bashful about reloading or reserve ammo.

The extra melee charge is excellent for Bladedancers and Nightstalkers, who can make great use of it to play around with invisibility, or in the NS case, spam Lockdown/Envenomed boosted smoke charges. In tandem with Keen Scout, this is an excellent combination for solo PvE or especially PvP. In any case, with the myriad benefits of NS smoke in PvE, these Gauntlets earn an A all the way.

Once known as “the helmet you only put on for Crota” because of its (admittedly lame) focus on healing you. Now, every helmet can roll Infusion/Better Already, so its intrinsic perk has to be really valuable to have a niche. Bungie smartly anticipated getting full health being a little underwhelming, and so they added instant ability cooldowns, à la Ward of Dawn. Chuck a grenade, smack an acolyte, pop your super for full health and rinse and repeat.

It’s not going to fix your game or revolutionize the way you approach PvE, but if you have no desire to run a better or more specialized Exotic, you could do worse overall. A mid B tier in PvE. PvP it’s worth a look, with a rather weak field for Warlocks overall.